The Anteega Fire Mystery

By G. Irving Hildebrand

Travel back and forth across the country in time and action with retired federal agent Gabriel Randolph as he encounters international corporate crime, personal adventure and romance. His travels take him from San Francisco to Milwaukee and the lake region of northern Wisconsin and back again. Gabe finds himself pulled into a major investigation…a web of crime…involving arson, murder, a major medical center, a large drug company and the mafia.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Aug 21, 2014
• ISBN: 9781312453531

Book preview

The Anteega Fire Mystery

The Anteega Fire Mystery

By G. Irving Hildebrand

Copyright © 2014, G. Irving Hildebrand

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of both publisher and author. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

ISBN: 978-1-312-45353-1

Chapter  1

It was about four in the afternoon on a cold day in Milwaukee. The sky was clear and bright, following several days of rain. He crossed through the open gate, went up the steps and entered the stone sided building through a heavy door. He felt good about this, no regrets. They might come later but not for now. After all these months, this was a very special time and he felt a rush of accomplishment just by being there.

The hallway was a bit dark, and he noticed a small table on the side with an open book and a pen tied with a string. A guest book for the living, he guessed.  He wondered who might have signed her guest book on that day back in 2003.

A door opened at the end of the entry area, and an older woman said "I’ll be with you in a minute, take a seat if you wish’.  He complied, choosing a straight-back chair in corner.  Several old issue magazines were scattered across the table next to his chair, and he started to reach for one, when he overheard the woman’s voice talking to someone in the next room.

I told you Alex that you needed to check with the coroner’s office before proceeding with preparations for internment.   I called and left a message, but they never called back, so I thought it was OK to proceed, Alex said. Well, it wasn’t. See what you can do to let them know you went ahead because they didn’t call you back. I have a customer waiting, so we can talk more later, the woman said.

The door opened and the woman came out. Sorry about the wait.  Now, what can I do for you?  She appeared to be about 40 years old, well groomed, dark hair and nice features.  Coming out of the room just behind the woman was a young man, dressed in jeans, and wearing a baseball cap with the Brewers logo on it.  He veered to the right, opened a door and entered another room.  As he entered the room the open door revealed a brightly lit, all white room, with several stainless steel mortuary tables.

Gabe Randolph rose from the chair, and offered his hand to the woman.

I’m here to locate the grave of a good friend of mine. I was trying to locate her and found out that she died last year here in Milwaukee. Since this was her hometown, I thought it likely that she is buried here.  My tracking indicated that this is the most likely cemetery she would have been placed, Gabe said.

Well, I think we can help you. We have a plot map that has all of those buried here listed. We’ll need both maiden and married name, plus her age and religion. We’ve arranged our plots in accord to religions to better meet family wishes, she added. Several of the plots had to be moved a few years ago because a new highway clipped the north side of the cemetery. We like to think of a cemetery as cemented in perpetuity, but these days things are constantly changing and we have to keep up with them.

She was Irish, Catholic, if that will help and her maiden name was O’Brien and the first name is Shannon, Gabe said.

OK, let me take a look, this may take a few minutes, she said as she moved back through the door into the room she was in before.  Must be the office, he thought.

He sat back down in the chair and randomly picked up one of the magazines off the end table and shuffled through some pages while waiting.

Chapter  2

A few miles outside of Anteega, Wisconsin a group of hunters discovered the body, mainly by the stench it gave off. Death must have been during the last winter storm, and the recent early warm spell must have started the deterioration. They called the sheriff’s office and he called the county coroner, Frank Hilmer. Frank was one of five brothers in the Hilmer family, long time residents of the town.  Their great grandfather, Lenard established an undertaking and furniture business back in the 1800’s and the business was handed down from one generation to the next.  Frank was in the family business, but decided to run for county coroner and this gave him a partial break out from under the family and the funeral business. The part-time position did not require medical degree, but Frank had good credentials. He had earned a Master’s degree in the health sciences from St. Edna’s University in Milwaukee as well as serving as a medic in the Navy.

Chapter  3

St. Edna’s University, on the shores of Lake Michigan in Milwaukee is one of the nations largest.  More than 30,000 day students are enrolled in the various undergraduate and graduate programs.  The Medical Center, with a medical/dental school complex and extensive research facilities, provides a superb training ground in the full range of health sciences. It is also one of the nation’s largest medical research facilities, with several Nobel Laureates on their faculty.

Dr. Craig Janus holds joint title as Dean of the Medical School and CEO of the Medical Research Foundation.  Top in his field of medical oncology, he maintains active, hands on role in a number of major research programs. The University has a strong relationship with one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, the Magnanimus Corporation – with headquarters in Milwaukee.  The firm provides huge financial contributions to the university, in addition to the funding of numerous research programs. These funds provide direct salary support for several hundred of the medical center research staff. Dr. Janus also serves on the Board of Directors for Magnanimus Corporation. This arrangement was formed when some of the early faculty of St. Edna’s formed a small private lab, which was to grow into the Magnanimus Corporation. Over the years, as the small lab grew larger the connections to St. Edna’s also grew. Special programs and research projects covering a wide range of biomedics were linked between the University and the now multinational pharmaceutical company. The partnership was of great importance for both parties. The company gained increased credibility from its relationship, and the university gained tremendous amounts of funding for research. Over the decades this has amounted to more than a billion dollars.

Chapter  4

Gabe walked across the damp lawn to the area where she had been buried.  I guess this is the right area, he said to himself.  Looking down a row of headstones, he spotted her name.  ‘Shannon O’Brien 1942 – 2003’.  Has it been that long, he thought? 

Gabe's mind raced back to that time, and the call he received from Grace Rambow.  Grace was a child hood friend of Shannon’s and was close to her and to her family.

I have some bad news about Shannon, Grace reported.  She didn’t want to tell you this herself.  She was diagnosed with cancer several years ago, and has been receiving treatment at the Cancer Center at St. Edna’s in Milwaukee. She must have kept this from you, so I know this comes as a shock to you. It came as a shock to us also. She seemed to be doing very well and was enrolled in a special clinical trial of a new cancer drug.  She passed away last night. She had all of her closest family with her and she seemed at peace. She privately asked me to call you and tell you how much she cared for you, and how much you meant to her life.

He wished that Shannon had shared the news about her illness with him, and wondered more about the specific nature of her illness. After their lives parted and each had gone their own ways, they remained friends and exchanged occasional Christmas cards.  He knew that she had gone to St. Edna's Cancer Center for some treatments from what Grace had told him, but he didn't have any more information or details. Somehow this was important to him, and he was more than a little curious about this. When he was going to UCLA he had supported himself working as a monitor at medical training programs and courses. A number of these were on cancer, and he was impressed on what a very complex disease cancer is. I'll have to contact Grace and see if I can get some of my questions answered, he thought.

Chapter  5

Gabe Randolph completed course work at the local community college and earned an Associate of Arts degree in business.  Gabe was not really sure of what he wanted to do in life, but a favorite uncle provided some answers.  Uncle Fred was a warm and caring person who had spent most of his life as a police officer. Even after retirement with full pension, Fred still wanted to be involved and did some volunteer work with the LAPD.

Uncle Fred’s devotion and obvious enjoyment of police work rubbed off on Gabe.  By the time he transferred to UCLA to finish work on his degree he had decided on a major in psychology and criminology.  Gabe soon picked up on the buzz from his classmates that the ‘real’ future in police work was with the federal agencies. With this in mind, he went back and added some more classes in business, accounting and law to his course load.

Gabe's parents lived within a few miles of UCLA, and this helped him with expenses for school. He always was able to find part time work, and even at UCLA he found a way to keep afloat.  Thanks to the campus student placement office, he found a part time job with the office of medical education. The job was not much, but involved support work at various medical post grad courses, which were held on the week ends for local physicians. Continuing Medical Education is what it was called, and all physicians in the state were required to keep their professional proficiencies up to date through these kinds of continuing education programs.

Gabe enjoyed the work, other than the time he was actually providing support by staffing the entry table he was able to take in much of the course material. Early in his life he had thought about being a doctor and in high school he excelled in physiology and biology but this changed along with many other early ideas in his life.  Working as a monitor at the conferences got him thinking more about the medical sciences and he learned a great deal over the two years he held this job. He always told friends that his work with medical post grad was like getting a second college major.

One weekend Gabe served as the class monitor at a special program for a group of Dieticians called ‘Dietary Treatment of Diabetes - the latest trends'.  The room was full of young women, participating in summer-long internships. Shannon was about 22, a year younger than Gabe, and they connected almost immediately and enjoyed each other over a summer-long romance.

Looking out the window of the hotel room, he recalled meeting her for the first time.  Even recalling it brought a sense of excitement after all these years. He acknowledged that he was very young then, so just thinking back about it gave him a good feeling.

Thinking about her now, recalling her youth, her persona, and the beauty of her face, eyes, hair, and body kind of made him feel young again. He thought of her often these days.  He recalled the snappy sound of her voice and slight mid-western accent from so many years ago, wishing he could pick up the phone and call her.

When they met there was a natural connection it seemed. Both attracted to each other by word, by eye, by soft touch, so many things to share and talk about. Day after day, week after week they enjoyed each other.  Life never seemed better, like it would never end. The summer ended with promises to each other. Shannon returned to Milwaukee and gradually the relationship faded, with fewer letters and phone calls over time.

His mind finally came back on focus. Now that he had found Shannon’s resting place, what about the mystery of her death? Grace mentioned the unusual change in the course of her treatment…what was that all about?

Just locating her resting place took a lot of time, and he did not have endless days and weeks available. Gabe had been called back to do some special work for the Bureau in San Francisco and even using vacation time, plus some time off things had reached a difficult point with his job. New mission priorities, a new strategic plan, and a cadre of new staff to be trained.  There is no fun at the top, no peace for the weary, he thought.  He had been able to move a lot of things around over the past months. This enabled him to break away and spend some time to track her down.  The trouble was that this just barely opened the door.  What he found out during his search for her left too many questions unanswered.  Somehow he vowed to himself, he would fulfill this quest. He needed to gain final closure and get answers to so many questions about the last several years of her life.

Chapter  6

Dr. Janus was looking at the notes of a recent meeting of St. Edna’s Institutional Review Board.  The IRB, as it is called is a special committee, which is responsible for the review of all research, which involves human subjects. The IRB must follow an extensive set of federal regulations to make sure that no human subject is harmed in any research carried out under federal funding. For St. Edna's Medical Center, this meant the majority of their campus-wide research programs and tens of millions of dollars. He spent some time going over the report and made a few notes for himself.

He picked up the phone to speak to Agnes, his administrative assistant. Agnes, would you please call Dr. Stanton and set up a meeting for me?  When would you like to meet? she asked.  As soon as possible. she said. Tell him it’s about the last IRB meeting report.  He next went over his daily appointment schedule with Agnes. 

Agnes, what time do I have the meeting with the folks from Magnanimus?  Oh, and remind me, who all will be at the meeting.

Doctor, the meeting is scheduled for Noon, and you will meet with their group in the Executive Board Room over lunch.   That sounds good.  Check with the Executive chef and see what he may surprise us with.

I already checked and it’s their very special individual quiche dish, filled with fresh caught sturgeon.   Ah! he said. That’s one of his very best with the flaky, baked, buttery crust, the lemon, white wine and fresh fish and perfect for this luncheon.

Dr. Janus returned to his morning routine, sipping his one-cup of strong, french roast coffee, with foamy non-fat milk and going through his morning correspondence. He leaned back in his high back leather office chair and stretched his arms, thinking to himself I hope that this is not going to be a problem for us. There is too much at stake.  He heard a knock at the door.

Good morning Craig, it's good to see you. Yes, same here Emil.  Dr. Stanton sat and opened a folder on his lap.  I think I know what you are concerned about, Craig. It appears that one of our research projects went ahead without getting all of the necessary IRB review in advance. I've already looked into this, and it seems to be a simple mistake by one of our junior investigators, Dr. Janet Kalley. I've met with her and made a number of inquiries related to this matter. As far as I can tell no harm has been done and she has learned an important lesson.

I'm glad to hear that Emil, since a breach in an IRB system could have serious consequences for us. You may recall what happened to Ivory University several years ago? It was all over the news and TV shows. All of their federal grants for research were suspended and they also lost out on some major foundation funding because of the shadow it cast. That kind of problem could really hurt us, he said.

They both knew that Janet Kalley, PhD was considered a rising young star in biomedical research. She received her undergrad work at the University of Chicago, and went on to receive her doctorate at Harvard.  A key to her recognition was derived in part by the four-year postdoctoral fellowship she spent with Dr. Roman Q. Weill at UCSF.  Dr. Weill was a co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology in 1968 and working in his shadow brought some automatic recognition. Janet was deeply devoted to her career, and seemed driven to achieve success. The years with Dr. Weill added great knowledge and skills, but unfortunately did little to upgrade her character.

Chapter  7

Shannon O’Brien had been feeling a bit under the weather for nearly a month and thought she should see her family doctor about it. There was the usual short physical exam, and the list of lab tests to complete. She had the tests done that same day at the hospital lab and left in time to do some shopping at the mall adjacent to the doctors office building in Milwaukee.  Somehow, just going to the doctor seemed to make her feel better and she enjoyed a short but fun